1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to food products and, more particularly, to presweetened ready-to-eat breakfast cereals. In its method aspect, the present invention relates to methods for the preparation of presweetened food products such as ready-to-eat cereals.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Cereal products, particularly ready-to-eat (hereinafter "R-T-E") breakfast cereals, are well-known and popular food items, particularly presweetened R-T-E cereals. Typically, such products include various coatings usually comprising nutritive carbohydrate sweeteners such as sucrose, corn syrup, fructose, etc. Also known are presweetened RTE cereals comprising coatings that include a high potency sweetener (See for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,378,377, issued Mar. 29, 1983, entitled "Cereal Presweetened With Aspartame And Method Of Preparation", and U.S. Pat. No. 4,540,587, issued Sep. 10, 1985, entitled "Cereal Presweetened With Aspartame And Cold Water Soluble Gum Coating And Method Of Preparation", each to Gajewski).
Conventionally, presweetened breakfast cereals have been prepared by first producing unsweetened cereal pieces, particularly puffed cereal pieces; coating the cereal pieces with an aqueous slurry or solution of sweeteners; and then drying the coated pieces in an oven or air current to remove the added moisture.
One problem with sugar coated R-T-E cereals concerns the rate of dissolution in milk. Rapid sugar coating dissolution is considered by consumers to be negative. Rapid dissolution is perceived to be even more irksome for those sugar coated cereals having a frosted appearance as compared to those having a clear sugar coating. In the dissolution for frosted type sugar coated R-T-E cereals the change in visual appearance reinforces any taste perceptions.
It has been surprisingly discovered that inclusion of small amounts of gelatin into a pre-sweetener slurry provides improvements in reducing the rate of dissolution of the sugar coating in cold milk. Gelatin has been used in past R-T-E cereal coatings wherein a coating of a fondant type is provided. Gelatin has also been taught as useful as a binding or adhesive agent in sugar coating solutions to adhere large sugar crystals to R-T-E cereals equivalent to numerous other known binding agents. However, gelatin appears to be uniquely useful in providing the reduced rates of dissolution in milk in smooth sugar coatings for R-T-E cereals.